In this guide we shall see the basic concepts for telnet.

TELNET

Before the advent of the WWW and its graphic interface, computers on the Internet would operate with command prompts, (as in MS-DOS).

Telnet is one of the first tools used in order to connect computers to the Internet. It can remotely control from a machine connected to the network. For example server administrators can make changes on the server from a home network computer through the use of telnet.

Generally one can access a large and complex computer named Host, from a simple computer named Terminal. Telnet software is terminal emulator software, in other words, it acts as if the computer were directly connected to the host although it is really connected via the Internet. This allows you to use the other computer as if your keyboard was directly connected to it.

Nowadays Telnet is not widely used since the Web is the preferred access for most people, and you can access almost all servers that provided telnet access initially through the Web, FTP or Gopher.

Some machines have public telnet access, while others are private. Some special applications and archaic archives are still using Telnet.

Eg: Data bases for some libraries, Scientific and University institutions.

In order to use Telnet, you need special software. There is a telnet application included in Windows.

Sites using telnet begin their URL with telnet://